We congratulate Institute Faculty members,  Doris Kretzschmar, Ph.D.,  and Matthew Butler, Ph.D., upon their recent promotions.

Dr. Kretzschmar was promoted to Full Professor and Dr. Butler was promoted to Associate Professor, both within our Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences. Dr. Kretzschmar is also an Associate Professor of Molecular and Medical Genetics within the OHSU School of Medicine. She received her doctorate from the Univeristy of Würzburg. The focus of Dr. Kretzschmar’s work is to identify genetic factors and mechanisms that lead to progressive degeneration of the adult nervous system using Drosophila as a model for human diseases and to study basic mechanisms of neurodegeneration. The Kretzschmar Lab is currently focusing on two projects: the characterization of the swiss cheese mutant, which shows progressive degeneration of the adult nervous system; and another project focusing on the function of Amyloid Precursor Proteins, which are key factors in Alzheimer’s Disease.

After studying as an undergraduate at Princeton University, Dr. Butler completed a PhD at the University of California at Berkeley, and post-doctoral fellowships at Columbia University and Harvard Medical School, joining OHSU in 2013.  Dr. Butler has established a translational research program focused on discovering how physiology and behavior are coordinated by hormonal and environmental cues. All of Dr. Butler’s work has great relevance to human health, for instance by understanding how disruptions of our internal body clocks and sleep, as often encountered by night shift workers, increases the risk for disease. His research is supported by highly competitive federal grants (National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense), as well as by the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences.

Learn more about Dr. Kretzschmar and Dr. Butler. We congratulate them both!